1. Doing the Right Things. Begin by identifying your strategic intent. What are you trying to accomplish and by when? We are accountable for understanding and identifying our strategic intent—and the activities that support it.
2. Managing Your Space. We are accountable to create the new space we need to grow and innovate in our own lives, which sometimes means taking space from something else that we’re doing. “Force of habit prevents us from giving ourselves the physical, mental, financial, or emotional space necessary to shake things up a little bit and put something new in our lives—something that could provide growth and improvement.”
3. Managing the Process. We are accountable for creatively making progress toward whatever it is we are trying to make happen even when we hit an obstacle. It means not throwing up our hands and saying, “If it’s not meant to be, it’s not meant to be.”
4. Establishing the Right Expectations. We are accountable for establishing the right expectations, that reflect our values, that are properly benchmarked, and are a bit of a stretch.
5. Contributing to Your Relationships. The success or failure of our relationships depends entirely on the contributions we make. We are accountable for giving to our relationships—without keeping track. “In fact, the quickest way to kill a relationship is to start keeping track of all the reasons it’s not your turn to give to it and support it.” Sam adds, “We should constantly be looking for ways to invest in the relationship and enhance the value of the relationship over time.”

For me, I worry that too many times accountability is passed off to others, rather than just assumed and accepted. If you truly give service (not lip service) to these 5 items, I bet your people will follow you anywhere. That they look up to you, as a mentor and coach. Over at his website SamSilverstein.com - he has all the contact information and free tools and exercises to help you implement the Five Accountabilities.

What would make people not want to stand up and take responsibility for their actions?

• Afraid of the perception that they don’t know what they are doing. I don’t know about you, but this one really makes them look incompetent.
• Afraid of the consequences. Fear does wonderful things, usually not in a good way.
• Never had to take responsibility ever, so why start now. This one, is starting to really come out loud and clear to me. As the workforce is changing – this lack of responsibility is a fundamental building block on solid work ethic.

How do we change this behavior? For me, there is one key to turning it around. It all starts with one person, yourself. Demonstrate exactly what behavior you are looking for. Take personal responsibility to your actions. When you make a mistake, stand up and be counted. Demonstrated by say, “I made a mistake, I will do XXXX better next time.” This will let the folks in the team know that you are human and willing to admit that you messed up and how you plan on fixing that mistake in the future. Next up, I would make insure that the work environment is set up for folks to admit to mistakes without fear or perception issues popping up. When people feel that they are open to say what they need to say, they usually will do so. Lastly, when someone opens up and admits it, go ahead and thank them for their honesty. Seems like a strange thing to do, thanking someone for admitting a mistake, but when the team sees this behavior, they will understand that the environment is a safe place. This does not mean that the slate is wiped clean of the actions. Work has to get done and quickly, but what happens is everyone can get on with producing results, rather than wasting time “getting to the bottom of what happened.” I have never seen a person get fired for standing up when they have made a mistake and take ownership to insure that it does not happen again. Have you?

Facts (straight from Arizona Education Association)

• Second in highest student-teacher ratio.  
• Second fastest growing student population. 
• Ranks 35th in the nation for average teacher salaries and is $6,536 below the national average.
• Ranks dead last in per pupil expenditure.
• Arizona ranks 49th out of the 50 states in the amount spent per student
• Arizona expended $6232 per student which is $2741 below the national average.
• Arizona would have to increase per pupil spending by 44% to move to an amount equal to the national average expenditure per student
• The cost to move Arizona to the national average is estimated to exceed $2.7 billion.

There is not all bad news for our Arizona schools – I did read a few reports that have us in the bottom third ranking in overall scoring and test results. Most of them have us in the mid to upper 30′s ranking. In the high 40′s in spending and that gets you to the mid to high 30 ranking in results. Just think if we were to put a little more spending in that bucket – no telling where our results would far, maybe to half or top third… Something to think about.

With what is on the table today.. We all are having to really look to pass a sales tax in order to save this. What other choice do we have? Our government today, is looking at billions in cuts… As a parent, I am not pleased. I have to do something… Here are my actions:

• As much as I hate to see an increase in sales tax – just another balloon squeeze. I will have to support that!
• Next time we have our government up for re-election, time to do some serious revisiting of who should remind. In fact, it is about time to kick all of them to the curb. Starting over could not make this any worse than it already is. At the very least, the officials that really support education and what is needed – need to stay.
• Get active in any and all education rallies throughout our state. Our voices have to be heard, but first you have to be in attendance. Thinking that there are already enough or that you alone can not change things – is not going to work. History demonstrated that active participation works, make it work now.
• Tell you state government, your elected officials in your district and the education department – it is time to wake up… Time to really look at what is important today and in the future.

The real question is – “What are you going to do?”

Ever wonder if your leader is in touch with reality? Ever wonder where they are? Ever watch them walk to and from meetings – and wonder what they are looking for? I have wonder those a few times in my career.  I used to use the phrase, “looking for $50 bills” when I see a senior leader walking around looking down at the floor, rather than looking at the people that were passing by. A few years back, I wondered if our group leader was still employed, I never saw him in the building. I knew he was around, my email inbox said so. I guess he was hiding out in a conference room or somewhere else. Leaders need to be out and about! I really enjoy walking up and down the cubicle hallways, to the café   (sit down with folks that you know but not well), or to a conference room; just so I could talk to people. The people that worked for me, the ones that supported my team or just strangers. It is amazing some of the conservations that I have participated in.

I was reading a recent blog post from the Harvard Business Review by John Baldoni, he highlights four ways.

• Study up: Leaders need understand the issues facing their organizations today. They should be well versed  in their particular field. If anyone is wondering where to get that information, just Google it or talk to your experts. They will get more than they need. Just try to pick out the stuff that is truly needed.
• Listen up: Once you have the knowledge from study, how do you really get to the heart? Take some time to listen to your customers, stakeholders and even your people. You will definitely hear from customers and stakeholders – what they don’t really care for. Your people, well that comes down to the relationship that you have with them. Will they share the real stuff?
• Inspect up: Get out and take a real deep look. I went to a military school for college, and inspections were a way of life. I am not talking about those type of inspections. If you are a leader and have a manufacturing floor; it is about time to go out and see how things really get done. Not an overview tour or a well prepared welcome to the floor special, but a surprise visit that lets you see the real deal. Spend time helping out.
• Follow up: If you do the first three, then you need to follow up on what you have learned. For me, I find the leader that asked for some information and does nothing with it, annoying. Almost makes me want to jump on the next fire drill request. It is all about accountability. The leader and his teams accountability to each other, to their customers and stakeholders.

Trying to lead an organization from their office or private conference room is not going to work. It may seem easier on the leader, but the organization observes and remembers. Get out there – see the folks, talk , joke with them and observe what is happening.

They shared their stories about the season. How, they grown as young men and finally figured out what it meant to be on a team. They shared stories of the locker room, the times the coaches were in the hallway preparing for the game. If you ever wondered what goes on in there, don’t. High school teenage boys and the locker room, should just be left to your imagination. It was a very good 30 minutes before I asked them, “who do you think was the most valuable team mate?” The answer shocked me. I would have guessed the leading scorer or maybe the captain of the team. Nope, not even close.

The person that they felt was the backbone of the team, was just one of the guys. I went back to my old stats (amazing what not throwing anything out can do). His stat line was 3 goals, 6 assists and 24 penalty minutes (in 22 games). Not who I would have expected those players to pick.

Why did they think he was the MVP? As the coach I know why. He is and was a coaches dream player. He is the one that will do whatever it takes for the team. He was a pretty good skater, had an average shot, but he would do the things that don’t show up on the stats sheet. He would play against some of the better players from the other team to shut down them. He would be a physical presence on the ice. There were many times he would hurt himself (black and blue bruises were common).

To have a successful team (in sports or at work), you must have team members who are willing to sacrifice individual recognition for the good of the team. I started to wonder, if I asked the team at the end of the season, who was the MVP would I get the same answer. I think not. I think those players now understand this concept better, since they have some experiences in life and at work.

Does your team having any of those unheralded, unnoticed folks that are willing to do the dirty work, without getting the recognition for it?

Any stories come to your mind?